Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-02-19

s. B.36, relating to the government of the State
Prison concerning the manufacture of jute
goodsl. Read the first time and made the sDe-
cial order for tomorrow, after the reading of the
s. B. 70. to establish an asylum for insane
criminals. Read the second time.
Recess till 7:30 P. M
Evening Session.
On reassembling the Senate proceeded to the
consideration Of bills on the general file.
A. B. 122, relating to. conduct of insurance
companies. Read the second time. .
S. B. 10, providing per diem, while on duty
for the Fish Commissioners.
The bill was opposed by Clunie. Murphy and
Rose, and supported by Caminetti, Boggs and
Walrath.
Murphy moved to strike out the .enacting
clause. Carried-ayes Is, noes l6
S. B. 1872, relating to the vocation of fishing,
and licensing persons engaged therein. Read
the second time. The bill provides that the
Fish Commissioners shall be entitled to IS per
cent. of the sum received from licenses as com
pensaticn for their actual and necessary ex-
penses while on duty.
S. B. 274, to provide for the erection of build
ings and other permanent Improvements at the
State Prison at San Quentin. Read the second
time. [The bill appropriates $4,000.
S. b. "a, to provide for the better protection of
life and property in the use of steam boilers.
Read first time.
S. B rs, relating to disqualifications of Judges.
Read first time.
S. B. 222, in relation to imposing licenses in
incorporated cities. Read first time.
S. B. 173, relating to the sale of mortgaged
premises by Commissioner. Read first time.
S. B, 12l, relating to waiver of trial by jury.
Read first time.
actions before trial. Read first time.
A. B. II, relating to irrigation. The Wright
Abbott bill. Read first time.
A PROTEST AGAINST EXTRAvAGANCE.
When the Senate reached S. B. 103 anthoriz-
ing the purchase of the Bancroft Historical Ii
rf,afo
strike out the enacting clause, and spoke at
some length in support of his motion. He char
acterized the proposed purchase as an attempted
fraud and outrage upon the people.
Murphy, Walrath and others spoke in defense
of the bill, claiming the proposed purchase TO
be a most desirable thing.
The motion to strike out was vigorously de-
Tended by Gesford. who made one of the most
powerful and eloquent arguments yet heard
during the present session. He said he was as
founded at the colossal effrontery shown in the
attempt to inlet such burden upon a tax
ridden people. He had made rough estimate
OF the amount of the appropriations asked at
the hands of this Legislature, and it ran to up
wards of ten million dollars And yet. in the
face of the fact that we have State Prisons, and
| asylums and eleemosynary institutions by the
score begging for vast sums of money for their
maintenance, here comes bald proposition
from the lobby to give away quarter of a
million of the peoples money for lot of old
manuscripts, to be LAID away to rot in the rock
cry of the Capitol building The owner OF these
documents had skinned the cream of the in
formation contained in them, and now offered
the skinned milk to the State at the enormous
price of quarter OF million dollars. The
printed volumes embcdying all the informa-
ton that could be CLEANED from the
manuscripts had been sold and distrib-
uted all over the State, and the people
have about all the history of that kind they
need. The speaker had visited the homes of
people in his district whose floors were without
carpets to keep out the wintry, winds whose
windows were without the necessary panes of
glass, ana some of whom had hardly chair for
the stranger to sit upon. But the book-agent
had b.eu there, and there might be found the
result of his vista copy OF Bancroft's History
of the Native Races of the Pacific The school
houses are full of them, and if anybody wanted
to speculate in the article ne might go abroad
among the people and buy up these volumes at
a little over ten per cent of their cost. What
the people of California need to-day is not musty
manuscripts, but bread and butter aud potatoes
They want lower taxes than they have be en-
compelled to pay. but 1t looked as if the State
tax would this year be increased from ten to
fifteen cents per $780, in consequence OF the enor
nous and unprecedented appropriations that
would be made by this Legislature. II the State
were op1leat; If the people were not already
grooming under their burden of taxation if we
had not so many insane, and poor, and blind and
feeble-minded, and criminal, and orphaned I'm
fortunates to care for; if the Treasury had a sur
plus of money over and above the wants of the
State, then he would favor indulging in lux
ury of this kind. But here, in this very build
ing, the people have the finest library on the
coast including full sets of volumes containing
every particle of information contained in the
Bancroft manuscripts, and he appealed to his
brother Senators not to permit this undeseryed
infection to be visited upon the tax-iidden peo-
pie of California. lie would like TO know how
the author Of the bill arrived at the conclusion
that the papers were worth a quartec of a
million dollars. Who knew them to be worth
half that sum Without having their value
passed upon by competent commission of lit
terateuTs and scholars, who could fix value
upon them The Senator concluded with an
eloquent appeal to the Senate to throttle the
bill, and to do it without further delay.
By vote OF 16 ayes TO IS noes the Senate re-
fused to strike ont the enacting clause.
At 10:l5 =. NJ. the Senate adjourned.